The North Pole: why would anyone want it?

It's cold, wet and uninhabitable, but five countries are keen to stake their claim on the North Pole and the thousands of miles of seabed that surround it.

On August 2, 2007 a Russian flag was planted in the seabed of the Arctic Ocean at a depth of 4,261 meters (13,980 feet)Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

10:00AM BST 18 May 2011

The reason is the vast deposits of oil and gas that are thought to lie untouched beneath the sea floor.

The Arctic is believed to hold as much as 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas and as other deposits begin to run out, attention has turned to the frozen north.

The US Geological Survey estimates that there are at least 90 billion barrels of oil waiting to be discovered there, and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, equivalent to the entire hydrocarbon reserves of Kuwait.

Climate change has also played a part in the fortunes of the North Pole. Decades ago, the Arctic was impenetrable, frozen solid and almost impossible to drill. But as the ice has melted, opening up new shipping channels, boats carrying curious scientists have been able to explore the region and probe for oil and gas.

However, the climate around the North Pole is still extremely harsh and the drilling season in the region lasts just three months.